


Project J.P.C.

by orenjikitty



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Big Bro Jesse, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, adopted kittens, jet pack cat, past overwatch shenanigans, science project turned real
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-11 05:55:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11708202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orenjikitty/pseuds/orenjikitty
Summary: “I remember. Can’t be as bad as what you put the cat through when Fareeha was younger,” Jesse replied, putting down the cat he was holding. “Ya’ll tried to launch ‘im to the moon.”“What?!” 4 simultaneous voices echoed in the apartment, Fareeha letting out a hearty laugh as Angela just smiled.“We didn’t launch her into space. We just made her a jetpack,” Fareeha clarified, apparently not satisfying the other occupants of the room. “You see…”





	Project J.P.C.

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the lovely picture drawn by believemeitsbetter on tumblr/ otp_trashqueen on twitter. Picture link: https://twitter.com/otp_trashqueen/status/891786899978829825.

Fareeha gave Emily a smile, Angela thanking the other woman as she passed them a couple of drinks. The mission to protect the same power station the strike team protected all those years ago ended successfully, Lena inviting them all over to drink and finally meet her girlfriend.

Emily seemed overwhelmed by the presence of the Overwatch members but took everything with good grace and a smile. Fareeha liked her; She was a couple of years older than Lena and certainly more mature than their teammate. Still, she seemed easy going enough that the rest of the team took a shining to her immediately. Fareeha did still watch everything she said though, the other woman was a reporter at the end of the day.

She heard the soft mews from the corner where the rest of the team sat. Jesse, Lucio, Genji and Lena were all playing with the foster kittens the couple had taken in. “Kinda reminds me of Scraggly,” Jesse commented as he rubbed the head of one of kittens he held. “Remember him? Little bastard got me good a couple of times.”

“That’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time,” Fareeha said with a chuckle, earning confused looks from both Lucio and Emily. “We had a cat back in base before. Bastet was their official name,” Fareeha explained, shooting Jesse a glare. “Jesse kept calling her Scraggly since she was a thinner cat.”

“I remember Bastet!” Lena exclaimed. “He was a fat bastard.”

“She…” Fareeha heard Angela correct them.

“Not when we first got him,” Jesse retorted. “Asshole loved you two. And Genji. Hated me.”

“Her…”

“You tried to hit her with nerf gun darts,” Fareeha defended, earning an audible gasp from Lena and Lucio. “Remember?”

“I remember. Can’t be as bad as what you put the cat through when Fareeha was younger,” Jesse replied, putting down the cat he was holding. “Ya’ll tried to launch it to the moon.”

“What?!” 4 simultaneous voices echoed in the apartment, Fareeha letting out a hearty laugh as Angela just smiled.

“We didn’t launch her into space. We just made her a jetpack,” Fareeha clarified, apparently not satisfying the other occupants of the room. “You see…”

**_\----- 14 years earlier: Watchpoint Zurich -----_ **

Fareeha laughed, jumping behind the crates as another dart hit the wall behind her. “Can’t get me Jesse!”

“I’ll get you good!” she heard him exclaim, the jingling of his spurs making it easy for her to know where he was. Fareeha moved as quietly as she could, nerf gun in hand as she snuck behind another box, hoping to ambush Jesse as he passed.

 

Fareeha went through everything her mother taught her about keeping quiet, tucking herself away and slowing down her breathing to be more careful. She readied her gun, hearing Jesse’s spurs come close and closer when she heard loud purring behind her. A loud meow and a nudge followed, Fareeha biting on her lip as the cat nudged her more. Another deep purr and she felt Bastet’s claws sink into her lower back, making her jump out form her cover. “OW! BASTET!”

“Gotchu!” Fareeha spun to feel the dart hit her forehead dead center, her eyes focusing into a glare at Jesse’s grinning face. “I win, little birdie.”

“You only won because Bastet got me out of hiding,” Fareeha retorted, taking the dart off to throw it at him. Jesse chuckled, tipping his hat to the cat that was now sitting by the wall. “That wasn’t fair.”

“Nerf wars ain’t always fair, little lady.” Jesse noticed the small dots now on Fareeha’s shirt. “You’re bleeding kiddo,” Jesse said, pointing to her back. “Really should cut ‘em nails. Come on, let’s get you to the doc’s to get you looked at.”

“I...I don’t want to go to the med bay. It’s nothing. Really,” Fareeha replied, Jesse raising her an eyebrow before poking her back with the nerf gun, making her flinch. Jesse just held his stare, Fareeha pouting at him.

“Fareeha, you can’t avoid the medbay because you have a little crush on Angie.”

“I DO NOT!”

Jesse grinned at her, “Your blush says otherwise.”

“I’ll be fine! Mama has a lot of cat scratches and she’s okay. If I’m going to join you guys, I should be able to put up with anything!” Fareeha said stomping towards the darts that lay on the crate. She saw Jesse’s smile drop at the mention of joining Overwatch and how it was a tense subject between her and her mother. Jesse didn’t say thing about it though. “You ready for round two?”

Jesse’s smile returned, reloading his own gun before winking at her. “You’re on!”

\----

“Have you ever thought about being in the air?”

“Like...in a plane?”

“No! Like with a jet pack. But it’ll let you hover a bit so you can still use your weapons and stuff,” Fareeha clarified, tossing another rock down from their perch. After the ‘practice’ session they had in the hangar, she had convinced Jesse to come to her favourite spot on the base: the observation deck just above the training grounds. It was quiet for now, but Fareeha knew it was only time before the sounds of guns firing will fill the air from below them. “It’d be so cool!”

“I’ll pass. I get queasy enough when I’m in the transport. Shooting from mid air ain’t for me,” Jesse said tipping his hat back down over his face. “‘Sides, you’re the promising engineer, not me.”

“Mama told you?” Fareeha asked, head tilted. She knew Ana would have told command of her achievements but Jesse? Ana did treat Jesse as a son but….

“Gabe told me. Good on you, kiddo. That award should set you up nicely if you do go into engineering,” Jesse replied. Fareeha grinned at him. The award she won at the school science fair was a step. Ana was pushing her into more practical, more normal endeavours and engineering had peaked her interest after spending some time with Torbjorn last year. The fact Angela was also an engineer might also have played into that decision to try for the field but she wasn’t going to admit that. “What did you make anyways? Gabe didn’t tell me that.”

“A jet pack!” Fareeha exclaimed. “Well more like I used Diet Coke and Mentos to get enough lift to lift my stuffed animals.”

“Huh. So that’s why you wanted to talk about jet packs,” Jesse looked down to see the field team come into the training grounds. “Ever think of actually building one?”

Fareeha looked down at the training grounds then back up to the sky. “Eventually? Maybe. I dunno,” she said with a heavy sigh. “It’s gonna be hard but I know I’d have enough influence from you guys to make it work. But like…” She looked down at her lap, fiddling with her shirt hem before letting out another sigh. “I want to join Overwatch. I want to serve my country and the world like you guys are doing. Mama is against it but I wanna help! I know I can! But I also want to make her happy by not following her footsteps. I...I dunno.”

She heard Jesse shift, wrapping an arm around her. “You don’t have to figure things out immediately, Ree. Hell I’m older than you and I still have no idea what I’m doing.” The both of them chuckled at that. “Not all of us can be Angie. Not all of us can be like your mom or Gabe or Jack. Point is, you’ll get there. You’ll make Ana proud no matter what you do, even if you do follow her footsteps against her wishes. As long as you do you, you’ll be fine.”

“Thanks Jesse.”

“But back to the original question, do you wanna make an actual jet pack?” Jesse inquired as they watched Torbjorn yell at the new recruits. “I’m sure we can convince Angie to help us.”

Fareeha thought about it. The design she did make for her stuffed animals was still fresh in her mind, some of the schematics she had drawn up was probably still in Ana’s emails from her dad. “You really think so?”

“Yeah! Make it small though, like…” Jesse looked around them. “Make it be able to lift up Scraggly.”

“Isn't that unethical? Testing on animals?”

“You’ve been hanging out with Angie and Mirembe a lot,” Jesse commented. “Can’t be unethical...I think. Ask Angie to make one of ‘em molds she like to use. The ballistics one.”

“Like the one she made of you that looks like Jack?” Fareeha said with a grin, Jesse just touching his nose to agree. “Maybe. It might work.”

“And if that works, then Scraggles over there can fly with you when you make your own later.”

Fareeha looked at the cat, then back to the smiling Jesse before looking back down at the training grounds. “It would scare the new recruits to see a flying cat around the base.”

Jesse gave her a hearty laugh. “It’s scare ‘em for sure til they realize it’s Scraggly.”

“Her name is Bastet,” Fareha corrected. “But ok! Let’s get Angie and show her my design and see if she’ll help. Maybe with her on board already, Uncle Torb won’t yell as much when we start taking some stuff from his workshop.” Fareeha said thinking of a way to get her designs from her mother’s email. “You’ll help us, right?”

Jesse nodded. “Hell ya I would! Let’s get your specs and find your crush and convince her to help us.”

“JESSE!”

\------

“Angie!” Jesse called out as soon as they entered the Engineering bay, Fareeha trailing behind him with the papers she managed to print out from her mom’s office.

“I’m not making you another bust, Jesse,” Angela glared at him, waving at Fareeha. “The Commander wasn’t too pleased with me with the first one.”

Jesse blew her a raspberry setting himself down on one of the benches on the other side of the intern’s desk. “Morrison can…” Angela gave him a pointed glare, stopping him from continuing the sentence. Fareeha laughed, Angela already knowing how to stop the agent even if she wasn’t a full member of the team yet. Jesse just rolled his eyes, propping his feet on the table as he continued. “It was a birthday present and I love ya for makin’ it for me but that ain’t what we’re here for.”

“And that would be?”

“We need your help with making a cat jet pack.”

“Excuse me?” Angela looked at Jesse then Fareeha then back to Jesse. Fareeha gulped, placing the papers she had on Angela’s desk. She watched as the young intern look through the papers with curiosity, eyes darting across the schematics of her Diet Coke and Mentos ‘jet’ pack. “This….You did this?” Angela asked, Fareeha nodding and blushing. “This is very well thought out. You have a good future in Engineering, Fareeha.”

“Thanks,” Fareeha whispered, trying to hide her blush.

“What do you need me for? These plans seem sound already,” Angela asked, shoving Jesse’s feet off her work table, earning the finger from the other.

“We need ya to make a Bastet analog,” Jesse spoke up, putting his feet up on a different part of the desk. “Fareeha convinced me it that it’d be unethical to test on Scraggly immediately so we need ya for that jelly shit you like to use.”

“And help with modifying the schematics to have a real rocket,” Fareeha added, shoving Jesse’s feet off the other end of Angela’s desk much to his dismay.

Angela gave him a smile, turning her attention to Fareeha. “You really want to make Bastet fly?” Angela asked, getting a nod from the younger teen. “Why?”

“So she can fly with me when I make my own suit later,” Fareeha said with determination. “Or one of her descendants can.”

“You’re serious about flying huh?” Angela questioned her further, going back around to check the schematics again.

“I’m going to fly. Even if I don’t make the tech myself, I know I’ll be up there, with the birds and the jets. I want to have a companion when I do so.” Fareeha looked up to see Angela studying her, making her blush and shift her gaze to Jesse. Jesse just shrugged at her before she heard Angela laugh pierce through the air. Fareeha looked up at Angela to see her smile, pencil already in hand as she started making notes on Fareeha’s sheets.

“Where do we begin?”

\------

Fareeha nodded at Angela, Jesse giving them the okay as he ran towards the cat at full speed. Bastet looked up and bolted towards Angela only to have her take a sharp turn. “Come here Bastet!” Fareeha yelled out as they chased the cat around the hangar.

“Uh...what’s going on here?” Ana asked with amusement. The older Amari calmly picked up the cat, Angela and Jesse skidding to stop near the captain.

“We’re just helping Fareeha with something,” Jesse replied, tipping his hat to the Captain. “Nothing dangerous, I swear it.”

“Somehow I don’t believe you, Jesse McCree,” Ana said with a smirk. “What’s going on, habibti?”

“We’re trying to make a bigger version of my school project,” Fareeha admitted. “We need Bastet for it.”

“I’m not sure if I should let you torture the cat for your project,” Ana said, petting the cat in her arms.

Angela stepped forward, “We just need to weigh her and scan her so I can make a ballistic analog, Captain. We’ve already made the cardboard mock up on her to get the fitting right. No harm will come to her, I promise.”

“That I believe,” Ana said. “But if you’re to do this, I believe adult supervision is required.”

“We’re adults,” Jesse defended, Ana turned to him. “I mean Angie and I technically are 18, ma’am.”

“You still think cake is a legitimate breakfast item, McCree,” Ana said, making him blush and the girls giggle. “As much as I trust Angela’s genius, I think adult supervision is still required,” Ana insisted. “And I know the perfect person for this.”

\------

“NO NO. N.O. NO!” Torbjorn hollered, making Fareeha and Angela wince. The other engineers in the lab turned to the fuming chief mechanic. “What are you all looking at?! Get back to work!”

“Uncle, relax, please. Your blood pressure,” Angela asked, passing him a water bottle. “Sit. Please.”

“Look,” Torbjorn pointed to the schematic on the table. “Look at that equation again and tell me what’s wrong.”

Fareeha looked at the series of numbers Angela had written down with confusion. She looked between Angela and Torbjorn for some answers but she was met with silence. “Uhhh, there’s a missing number?” she questioned.

“Close,” Torbjorn said, taking a pencil to draw a circle around the equation Angela had written down. The Breguet Range Equation, Fareeha knew that much. When she was going her own research for her project she had come across it but didn't pay much attention to it since all she needed was lift. Angela had briefly explained it to her that it was the maximal total range is the maximum distance an aircraft can fly between takeoff and landing, as limited by fuel capacity in powered aircraft then went on into a science rant that made Jesse fall asleep. 

Fareeha tried to keep up but eventually had to stop Angela when she switched languages. Still, Fareeha listened as Torbjorn explained where Angela had gone wrong: the fuel consumption Angela had written down didn’t count for the possible wind resistance Bastet would encounter with a helmet on. Angela nodded, taking in the lesson with gusto as much as Fareeha did, Torbjorn patiently explaining to them that their initial design of a single engine on the back might be more harmful to the cat in the long run, offering them a small twin engine design.

“Now girls,” Torbjorn smiled at them after they drafted another design with his help. “Have you both thought of what material to make this out of? Plastic? Metals?”

Fareeha smiled, telling Torbjorn of her ideas with Angela supplementing some of her and Jesse’s own ideas.

**\------**

“And that was the summer we spent flying a cat around the base,” Fareeha remembered fondly. “We did manage to scare the recruits.”

“Wait so you guys literally built one?” Lena asked, looking at the older agents in the room. “Bloody ‘ell I wanna see it now!”

“The schematics are bound to be in the archives. Along with the videos,” Fareeha informed them, Angela and Jesse nodding in agreement. “We tried to keep it under wraps but SOMEONE,” she poked Angela’s shoulder, “couldn’t keep her mouth shut in front of the Commander.”

“It was a direct order!” Angela retorted, pouting on her end of the couch. “Jack was going to find out eventually, especially since Ana kept visiting us when she was supposed to be training.”

“It flew?! And you made a kitty helmet?” Lucio asked getting nods from all three. “I wanna see this in action now.”

“The first couple we made kind of overheated and melted the plastic and the mold itself. We tweaked it enough that we were actually able to put Bastet in there and fly her around the base by the end of the summer,” Fareeha said proudly.

“Hey, why don’t we ask Winston if he has access to those videos?” Lucio asked. “I wanna see this Jet Pack Cat in action.”

Fareeha, Angela and Jesse all laughed. “That’s what we called the project.”

“Any other stories from back then that you guys can disclose?” Emily asked. “I won't write about it, I swear. I’m just curious as to how it was back then. I heard the stories but it’s different to hear from people who were actually there.”

“Oh you want some stories, do you?” Jesse grinned. “Well, darlin’. Let me tell you about the time Lena, Genji and your truly snuck out of the base to go to France for the night but we somehow ended up in Austria instead.”

“Or do you want to hear of the time Jesse scared Genji enough that I had to stitch him up from 3 shurikens to the stomach?” Angela suggested.

“What about the time Angela got super drunk and hit on Kimiko, Yuri and Gabe all in one night?” Genji added, getting laughs from everyone. “We have a lot of stories of drunk Angela.”

Lena smirked, blinking into the kitchen only to return with a handful of beers. “Why not all of it? We have the entire night to ourselves, after all.”

Fareeha smiled, taking one of the offered beverages. “Sounds like a plan.”

**Author's Note:**

> HC's:
> 
> \- Jesse is totally a big bro to Fareeha  
> \- Angela was an intern for OW when she was young but for Engineering not Medicine  
> \- Angela is Torb's niece.  
> \- Fareeha is great with building things but she worked hard for it. Like really hard.  
> \- Fareeha spends her summers on base with Ana. Her school months is spent with her dad


End file.
